UPDATE // Full program about Activities on Flight and Migration during the Actionweek against G8

Saturday, 2 of June - big international demonstration in Rostock The antiracist bloc („flight and migration“) is going to walk at the front of the west-route of the demonstration, including own loudspeaker-car. Meetingpoint: 11 a.m. „Hamburger Straße/Graf- Schwerin-Straße“ (5 minutes from the S-Bahn-Station „R- Bramow“). 12 a.m. beginning of the initial manifestation, among others a refugee activist of NoLager Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is going to hold a speech. 1 p.m. start of the demonstration Sunday, 3 of June: Opening Event on Sunday, June 3rd 2007 10am to 1pm at the Nikolai Church in Rostock Ueber Europa (hinaus) / Beyond Europe Europe as a political project of social movements? Organisers: attac, Euromarches, Friedens- und Zukunftswerkstatt, IG Metall, FB Gesellschaftspolitik, Interventionistische Linke, kein mensch ist illegal, medico international, WEED Speakers: Kai Burmeister (IG Metall FB Gesellschaftspolitik) Lucile Daumas (attac Marokko / Migration Network) Gyekye Tanoh (Thirld World Network Africa / Stop EPAs Campaign) Miroslav Prokěs (Peace activist of the Czech Social Forum) Angela Klein (Euromarches / Precarity Network) Increasingly, politics takes place on a European level. Yet social movements and trade unions think and act too little on this European terrain. On the one hand, the EU stands for an increased coming together of this region. On the other hand, the policies and practices of EU institutions take their lead from neoliberal politics and deregulation, the rentrenchment of social standards, enclosure towards the outside, militarization and the running of an unjust global economic system. What relationship does the Left have to Europe? Is Europe a framework and a point of reference that social movements and trade unions can and should choose to criticize neoliberal capitalism and campaign for a better world? What would a more positive Europe look like? How could we conceive of a more solidarity-orientated and social Europe? Follwing this event there will be networking meetings on the topics of peace and demilitarization, precarity, migration, climate change and international solidarity. Transnational Network Meeting on Flight & Migration Time and place: 2pm to 10pm Ehm-Welk-School, Knud-Rasmussen-Str. 8; Rostock (tram station Thomas Morus Str., lines 1, 4 and 5) The idea for the networking meeting is mainly to offer space for horizontal debates (only with short inputs from speakers) with participants that are as transnational as possible. The aim is to exchange information and to also make progress by developing transnational campaigns and concrete interventions. For example, we could make plans to work against specific repatriation programmes or for migrant worker’s rights. This meeting is a continuation of the migration related assemblies which took place over the last two years during the European and World Social Fora. It is also related to the conference in Rabat in July 2006, as well as the transnational Action Day on the 7th of October 2006, both of which had global freedom of movement as central points. 2-3 p.m.: Opening plenary 3-7 p.m.: Working groups 8-10 p.m.: Final plenary List of Workshops: I. Legalisation II. Racist police violence III. Against the border-, detention and deportation regime in Africa and Eastern Europe IV. Precarity and migration, migrant labor V. NoLager, NoDetentions Brief descriptions of the workshops: I. Legalisation Double-slot workshop with brief inputs from Papers for All/ Goettingen, frassanito network/Italy, Dictio/Greece ... Exchange about different experiences with right-to-stay and legalisation- campaigns in Europe ... as well as more common perspectives? How to deal with State reactions, mainly "conditions" and their (new) exclusions? Last, but not least, how to deal with the main condition of the labour contract? What are our more long term concepts? "Rolling legalisations" in the respective countries? Or a European wide campaign? II. Racist Police Violence ... In February 2007 in Berlin, the working group ‘International Networking Against Police Violence’ was founded. It includes members of the Refugee Initiative Brandenburg (FIB), the organization ‘For a left-wing current’ (FelS), the Campaign for Victims of Police Violence (KOP) (www.kop-berlin.de), as well as other independent individuals. With these working groups we are trying to bring together initiatives and campaigns that are working on the theme of police violence. In an international context we seek to analyse different forms of police repression and violence with which different groups of people are targeted in different countries, but also show links between these occurrences and engage in education on the topic. Part of this is also the question of how racist police violence is influenced by the institutional situation refugees face in Germany and in Europe. Invited are organizations from Brazil, Cameroon, Togo, France and Belgium. III. Against the Border-, Detention and Deportation Regime in Africa and Eastern Europe Double slot workshop with activists from Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, maybe also Tunisia, as well as African refugees in Germany for the Africa discussion and activists from Poland and Ukraine for the discussion about Eastern Europe. Militarized border controls, more camps and detention centers outside Europe, racism, discrimination, exploitation in the labour market and raids against undocumented migrants also in countries of transit, interrogations for "identification", deportations and readmission contracts (including a second version of "guest-worker" programmes), are some of the characteristics of the new EU migration policy of "externalisation". But struggles of refugees and migrants, human rights organisations and antiracist groups are developing everywhere, also in transit countries and countries of origin. How can these groups and struggles come together, how can we learn from each other and start common campaigns? We want to divide the main topic of this workshop according to regions (Eastern Europe, Africa) and meet in the beginning in two different groups, but - after a summary of our main results, in the second part have coomon disucssions. Especially concerning common campaigns which we think are necessary. Particularly against Frontex, EU charter deportations, Dublin II and readmission contracts. Both workshops will have a similar structure and have German, English and French, and in the Eastern Europe-group, also Polish translation. Organised by: ARI Berlin and Refugee Council / NoLager Hamburg IV. Precarity and Migration, Migrant Labor Double slot workshop with inputs from global SEIU/Justice for Janitors/USA, from Frassanito-Network/Italy from the group Fels/ Berlin/Germany (involved in Euromayday-activities)and No One is Illegal/Hanau/Germany... We want to offer an exchange and a discussion about best practices concerning migrants and precarious workers rights. The first slot will start with a few brief presentations of various approaches and experiences. But we do not want to be limited to some inputs and a mere exchange. Rather we want to use at least the whole second part of the workshop to discuss "best practices" in order to try to develop transnational campaigns and common practical perspectives! We have started to contact some more groups and people, for example from the grassroot unions SOC in Andalusia and the IWW in Verona, as well as from the precarity- webring project and the Euromarch/ Precarity-Network. So we count on a really interesting transnational composition in our working group. As one basis of our workshop we recommend the last issue of the transnational newsletter Crossing Borders with a focus on migrant labour. It is available in five languages and can be found at www.noborder.org V. NoLager, NoDetentions Double slot workshop with inputs from NoLager Bremen and NoBorders London. Camps for refugees and migrants that cannot be found on any ordinary map exist everywhere inside and outside of Europe. Camps create a hierarchy of rights. Their aim is to create exclusion and act as adeterrent, and they serve as one of the central instruments to deport people or to drive them into so-called “voluntary return” or illegality. In this respect camps represent a cornerstone of global apartheid. The other way around camps have more and more become a starting point for resistance, be it from inside or outside. In the workshop we want to talk about different experiences in the fight against camps. In particular we want to discuss the various links between the fights against camps and other struggles. The workshop is prepared by refugee- and non-refugee- activists. On www.nolager.de you can find a lot of information about the global camp system (in English and German), including reports etc. about the NoLager- struggles in Germany and elsewhere. Monday, 4 of June, Action Day: Flight and Migration Morning: Decentralized actions in the City... From 8 a.m.: Siege of the “Foreigner’s Office” (Auslaenderbehoerde) in Rostock, Werftstrasse 6 (S-Bahn station Holbeinplatz): The “Foreigner’s Office” is a place where refugees and migrants are harassed and persecuted on a daily basis. It is here that decisions are made regarding the status people without an EU passport will be given, whether they are allowed to work, study or even stay in Germany or, as the case may be, the EU. This activity continues to work on the basis of inclusion vs. exclusion and we would like to at least succeed in rebuffing it for a few hours. 10 - 11.30 p.m.: “3 Days in August” (and many years more). Rally in front of the Sunflowerhouse (Sonnenblumenhaus ). S-Bahn station Rostock Lichtenhagen: 1992: Rostock-Lichtenhagen: With the approval of thousands of citizens, neo-Nazis attacked the central refugee reception centre as well as a hostel for Vietnamese workers with stones and Molotov cocktails. The pogrom lasted several days. The police did not protect the inhabitants. Shortly afterwards the SPD (Social Democratic Party) gave up their resistance against changing Article 16 of the German Constitution (the right to asylum). By holding this rally we want to remember the incidents of 1992 and show how much worse the conditions for refugees in Germany have become because of this pogrom. 10 p.m.: protest action in front of a Lidl-supermarket in Rostock- Evershagen with the participation of an activist from the Andalusian Union of Agricultural Workers SOC: Lidl has not only become known because of its lousy working conditions. Lidl (together with other supermarket chains) also stands out due to its ruinous price dictates. As a result of this, the prices for agricultural products have gone down dramatically. Often it is mainly migrants (without papers) who find themselves being forced to accept the lousy wage and work conditions in agriculture - be it as day labourers in the plastic sea of Almeria or as someone cutting asparagus in Mecklenburg- Pomerania. 10 am to 6. p.m: Information stands, exhibitions, films and installations on camps and borders, on the working conditions of migrant (agricultural) workers, on the countries of origin of refugees and migrants and much more. Place: Universitaetsplatz (Kroepeliner Strasse) Afternoon: Demonstration for Global Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights... 1-2 p.m.: (Opening) rally and start of the demonstration at the refugee camp Satowerstrasse (tram station “Neuer Friedhof”, lines 3 and 6) 5- 8 p.m: final rally with cultural events in the Rostock city harbour (inner city). Musicians performing: - les refugiés - African hip-hop from the Blankenburg reception and exit camp - the Kurdish female hip-hop-rapper Dezz Deniz - Microphone Mafia, Turkish-Italian-German rap from Cologne - Onejiru und Band, Dub/Elektro-Funk/R'n'B from Kenya/Wanne-Eikel Evening: Big Discussion Event / Talk 8 p.m.: Global Freedom of Movement against Global Apartheid with guests from four continents: - Solange Kone, CADTM (alliance against indebtedness), Ivory Coast - Maksym Butkevich, Noborder Kiev, Ukraine - Valery Alzaga, global SEIU (services trade union), USA/Mexico - Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, from Bagalore, Indien - Sunny Omwenyeke, The Voice Africa Forum, Nigeria/Deutschland Venue: event centre “Am Strande” (Art Goes Heiligendamm), Am Strande 6 (Rostock city harbour), 18055 Rostock. Tuesday, 5th of June 5.oo pm Nikolaikirche (Bei der Nikolaikirche 1, 18055 Rostock) Opening Panel of the Alternative Summit: Rethinking Globalisation Speakers: Jean Ziegler (UN-Sonderberichterstatter für das Recht auf Nahrung/ Thuli Makama (Friends of the Earth, Swaziland) Madjiguene Cissé (Sans Papiers, Senegal) Annelie Buntenbach (DGB Bundesvorstand) Wednesday, 6th of June Big panel at the alternative summit, “We are here, because you are there!” on the structural backgrounds of flight and migration Time and venue: The panel starts at 5 p.m. as a hearing and will then be continued as a workshop from 8 to 10 p.m. It will take place at Buehne 602, Warnowufer 55 in Rostock. With: - Victor Nzuzi, Via Campesina, from Kongo: Resource wars and the destruction of small farmer agriculture; - Solange Kone, CADTM (alliance against indebtedness), from the Ivory Coast: The debt trap; - Amadou Mbow, AMDH (human rights organisation), from Mauritania: the situation in the fisheries on the west African coast; - Gyeke Tanoh, Africa Trade Network, from Ghana: the (topically negotiated) EPA-agreement; - Maksym Butkevich, Noborder Kiev, from Ukraine: backgrounds of migration and the border regime in the Ukraine; - Ngongang Celestin from the Refugee Initiative Brandenburg: the living conditions of African refugees in Europe - Karl Kopp, speaker from Pro Asyl on European issues and on the board of the European Refugee Council (ECRE): how asylum and migration politics interlink with economic as well as political policy conditions. Brief Description of the panel: War of ressources and dictatorships, economic destruction through IMF/Worldbank-programs or through WTO and other free trade agreements (EPA), ecological desertification and failing states ... mainly on the African continent the fatal consequences of a neoliberal globalisation are very visible. This situation is the background for flight and migration of hundreds of thousand people from Africa to Europe. But confronted with a militarized EU-border regime the flight routes become more and more dangerous. 2006 was the year with the biggest rate of death of African boat people in the Mediterranean and Atlantic sea. Simultaneously the rigid Schengen-system was exported to the East in the frame of the EU-extension in 2004 and 2007. Not by chance Ukraine became a new outpost and a focal point of EU- detention and deportation policy. Those who nevertheless succeed to travel illegalized to Europe, will face racist exclusion, exploitation in low-paid-jobs and permanent deportation-threads. Readmission agreements are pushed through economic blackmail by the EU towards East-European as well as African states. Inspite of these realities, a reform-partnership with Africa is to be staged at the coming G8- summit in Heiligendamm. But nobody can expect more than a few caritative promises, just like it happened at the G8-summit in Scotland, when the announcement to cancel debts was without any consequences and in the final instance, ridiculous. Such statements only serve to hide structural exploitation, which are precisely what brings benefits to the G8-countries. The podium will bring together activists from various initiatives and projects in Eastern European and mainly African countries with self-organized refugees in Europe, all of them involved in struggles for their rights. Crucial demands from the Global South will generate a common voice beyond their particularities. From different points of view, the responsibilities for global exploitation and exclusion will be explained, as well as concrete alternatives developed in an orientation for global social rights. Thursday, 7 of June – workshop at the alternative summit “Fortress Europe: EurAfrique and the Boat People“ 9 to 11 a.m. – the workshop takes place in the „Nikolaikirche“ – Bei der Nikolaikirche 1 in Rostock, With: - Hicham Baraka, Oujda/Marokko, Human Rights Organisation A.B.C.D.S - José Palazón Osma, Melilla, Children Rights Organisation PRODEIN - Stefan Schmidt, Lübeck, former captain of the Cap Anamur - Karl Kopp, Frankfurt, speaker from Pro Asyl on European issues and on the board of the European Refugee Council (ECRE) General Contact: 0173/2441720. ctFor more information: www.g8-migration.net.tf or www.nolager.de or www.noborder.org